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Showing results for tags 'lambing time'.
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I had a summons from a local farmer who was seeing a lot of Coyotes (or the same ones repeatedly) around his sheep. As it was close to lambing time he was hoping they could be dealt with. I took a couple of laps around the 2 mile section that encompasses his farm and found the spot that they were using to cross over into what appeared to be their bedding area. I came back the following morning with the .17 Predator and the Foxpro, not seeing the opportunity for a very long shot and hoping to be gentle on the fur. I started with a couple of interrogation howls and after a short time went to the pup in distress. Within 5 minutes a spotted a Coyote coming at a dead run down the adjacent hill and heading for the call that was about 50 yards in front of me. He was coming hard and seemed intent on running off the intruder. His mate was well back up the hill and just trotting along to see how things were going to go with her mate and the new kid in town. Well not so good, when he was about 75 yards out I eased the crosshairs onto his chest and squeezed as he was nearing the bottom of the draw, he was coming straight toward me and executed a somersault before coming to a rest. The female stopped abruptly and just stared. Coyotes, unless being fired directly at, often don't spook at the report of the rifle. She was obviously in some state of shock having come in expecting a fight and seeing her mate prone with no other Coyote in sight. I bolted the gun and that broke her revery, she wheeled and began trotting away. I waited just a second to give her a little distance before trying to stop her. At about 175 yards I barked sharply with my voice and she wheeled around to see if she had somehow missed something important--she had--it was a 30 grain Nagel bullet at around 4100 feet per second. The bullet hit the standing dog squarely in the chest and she was down. Both Coyotes suffered minimal hide damage due to the frangible small caliber bullet that hardly ever exits on a Coyote and the fur was in good condition with no sign of rubbing yet. The farmer was ecstatic when I related to him that these were the 3rd and 4th Coyotes I had taken in the immediate area in the last month. It won't be long before another pair moves in and sets up house keeping as they have all they need to keep things interesting including yours truly. Most of the time when calling I never use bipods as they always seem to get caught up in grass or fences or whatever I am close to, instead I sit with my back against a post and put the rifle on my knee cushioned by my hand. I have found that out to about 200 yards I can be accurate enough to be sure of a killing shot. I have used sticks but they are one more thing to carry around and lose.